Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri argued over events in Singapore and their team have to be careful it doesn’t continue in the title run-in
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cLaren and Formula One could do with anything decisive in the championship battle between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri being decided on the track and without reference to the pit wall as the title run-in begins at the Circuit of the Americas on Friday.
With the Singapore Grand Prix’s doubtless extensive and tense debriefs dealt with, McLaren will be hoping for a reset. Norris was almost certainly more than aware of the historical context of his riposte to his aggrieved teammate at the last grand prix weekend. In a fiercely contested title fight with the Australian, that Norris invoked one of Ayrton Senna’s most famous sentiments was lost on no one but the incident that provoked his comment was of an entirely different nature to those that defined the Brazilian’s great rivalries.
“If you fault me for just going on the inside of a big gap then you should not be in Formula One,” Norris said of his opening-lap attempt to pass that led to the cars colliding. The remark appeared to paraphrase Senna’s “If you no longer go for a gap that exists you are no longer a racing driver” defence he gave to Sir Jackie Stewart after he ploughed into Alain Prost at Suzuka in 1990, ensuring he took the title.
